Share this story

Using software bots to buy concert tickets will soon be illegal, thanks to a bill passed by Congress yesterday.

The Better Online Ticket Sales (BOTS) Act makes it illegal to bypass any computer security system designed to limit ticket sales to concerts, Broadway musicals, and other public events with a capacity of more than 200 persons. Violations will be treated as "unfair or deceptive acts" and can be prosecuted by the Federal Trade Commission or the states.

Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kansas), who sponsored the bill, told The Associated Press that he intends to "level the playing field" for people buying tickets.

"The need to end this growing practice is reflected in the bill's widespread support," Moran said.

The bill passed the Senate by unanimous consent last week, and the House of Representatives voted yesterday to pass it as well. It now proceeds to President Barack Obama for his signature.

Computer programs that automatically buy tickets have been a frustration for the concert industry and fans for a few years now. The issue had wide exposure after a 2013 New York Times story on the issue.

Earlier this year, the office of New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman completed an investigation into bots. The New York AG's ticket sales report (PDF) found that the tens of thousands of tickets snatched up by bots were marked up by an average of 49 percent.

"I want the thousands of tickets for shows, concerts, and sporting events that are now purchased by bots and resold at higher prices to go into the general market so that you have a chance to get them," wrote Lin-Manuel Miranda, creator of the hit musical "Hamilton," in a New York Times op-ed in June. "You shouldn’t have to fight robots just to see something you love."

The Senate took up the matter a few months ago, holding a September hearing at which Jeffrey Seller, the producer of "Hamilton," testified. Seller told legislators that bots quickly buy up tickets, which are then resold on platforms like StubHub and TicketsNow for big markups.

The National Association of Ticket Brokers, a group of about 200 ticket resellers that do not use bots, supported the act.

"People should not be competing with ticket-hoarding software to make a purchase," Gary Adler, Executive Director of NATB, said in an e-mailed statement. "We look forward to Congress continuing its work by addressing other practices that harm consumers and the function of an open secondary resale market for tickets."

NATB emphasized that ticket holds placed by artists, teams, and venues mean that only 46 percent of tickets become available to the public at sale time, "which is the reason events sell out too quickly and lead to frustration over supply and market price."

Yea, I thought it was already prohibited by the ToS on the ticketing websites. Who try and combat it. But mostly it's the old cat and mouse game of filter out, then they get back through, then filter out again, and so on. I see this as a solution in search of a solvable problem. Unless the ticketing sites can track back to the buyers that use the bots regularly? Unless they're based overseas somewhere that it's not easy to get to.

This is stupid. Ticket sellers could have handled this with business model changes like using lotteries. Instead they're going to end up with a nearly unenforceable law that can be used as gateway to making tickets completely non-fungible.

Am I the only one who thinks that the original ticket vendors should just auction the tickets, to take out the motivation for mass scalpers and capture the actual market value of the performance for the performers and venue? Probably I am, since anti-reseller measures seem to be quite popular.

Yea, I thought it was already prohibited by the ToS on the ticketing websites. Who try and combat it. But mostly it's the old cat and mouse game of filter out, then they get back through, then filter out again, and so on. I see this as a solution in search of a solvable problem. Unless the ticketing sites can track back to the buyers that use the bots regularly? Unless they're based overseas somewhere that it's not easy to get to.

Sure it's against the ToS, but having it be against a federal law shifts the risk calculus. Violating ToS can be seen as a cost of doing business, but having federal prosecutors ready to ruin your life is a whole different thing. Even if it ends up being really hard to enforce, I'm guessing that it'll only take one or two prosecutions to scare the holy crap out of the bad actors. And this is exactly the kind of thing where U.S. Attorneys can push for maximum penalties without looking like Darth Vader.

Am I the only one who thinks that the original ticket vendors should just auction the tickets, to take out the motivation for mass scalpers and capture the actual market value of the performance for the performers and venue? Probably I am, since anti-reseller measures seem to be quite popular.

Auctioning the tickets would be a good way to ensure that only the rich can go to a show.

I feel like this is more of a problem that the events themselves should handle. Does anyone actually believe that enforcement of this law will be effective? Will be a good use of police and our courts time? I don't, but what would be effective is changing how tickets work.

Something like: Print the buyers name as the party name on each, check ID's, named individual has to show up. Limit party size to under 10.

Wonder if it'll address the portion of tickets that never even hit online sales, because they're held back by the venues/promoters/etc. and dumped straight onto the secondary market.

No, it won't. But the NY AG report shows that it is a big issue. The majority of tickets never even go on sale to the general public. From the report:

"NYAG found that, on average, only about 46% of tickets are reserved for the public. The remaining 54% of tickets are divided among two groups: holds (16%) and pre-sales (38%). Holds are tickets that are reserved for industry insiders, such as artists, agents, venues, promoters, marketing departments, record labels, and sponsors."

Most "pre-sale" tickets go to holders of particular credit cards, and fan clubs.

This is stupid. Ticket sellers could have handled this with business model changes like using lotteries. Instead they're going to end up with a nearly unenforceable law that can be used as gateway to making tickets completely non-fungible.

A lottery doesn't solve anything. You have ten thousand people trying to buy tickets and a bot net of ten million bots. Who's going to win that lottery?

I don't see the problem with making the tickets non-fungible as you put it. Put the buyer's name on the ticket, permit the ticket to be returned for a refund but not transferred. If returned, the ticket will not be resold for a random period of time say 1-100 minutes so you can't have a bot sitting and waiting to immediately rebuy it. A wait list for returned tickets would help too.

I'm waiting for a time when the only way to buy tickets for a hot show will be through a verified, authenticated smartphone app, though a service that uses push notifications to block unauthorized apps.

Am I the only one who thinks that the original ticket vendors should just auction the tickets, to take out the motivation for mass scalpers and capture the actual market value of the performance for the performers and venue? Probably I am, since anti-reseller measures seem to be quite popular.

Auctioning the tickets would be a good way to ensure that only the rich can go to a show.

Yeah, it's been a conundrum forever with pricing concert tickets. Price them under the "true" market value, and you get instant sellouts and scalpers. Price them at market value, you're the assholes charging kids $100 for tickets. As it stands the face value sale acts as a sort of "lottery" where some at least can get tickets cheaply, and the rest get dumped on the secondary market (in some cases by the promoters themselves).

I heard an interview with Kid Rock talking about what he does to deal with scalpers. One of the coolest things I heard is that (supposedly) he was sick of seeing nothing but old rich guys and trust fund kids up front, so he holds back the first row or two at his shows...and randomly upgrades attendees from the cheap seats. Then the rows behind that are all sky's-the-limit priced.

2. As an alternative to requiring a credit card, they could allow people to purchase in person (up to 4 tix per ID) and print that person's name on the ticket. You must have valid ID matching the name on the ticket to enter.

I'm waiting for a time when the only way to buy tickets for a hot show will be through a verified, authenticated smartphone app, though a service that uses push notifications to block unauthorized apps.

That will shut down the bots once and for all.

I'm confused as to why you believe that shifting the ticket purchasing software from a web app to a mobile app will somehow make it more immune to bots.

2. As an alternative to requiring a credit card, they could allow people to purchase in person (up to 4 tix per ID) and print that person's name on the ticket. You must have valid ID matching the name on the ticket to enter.

For those credit card entry shows, the scalper eat the cost of one ticket while escorting the buyers into the show.

I feel like this is more of a problem that the events themselves should handle. Does anyone actually believe that enforcement of this law will be effective? Will be a good use of police and our courts time? I don't, but what would be effective is changing how tickets work.

Something like: Print the buyers name as the party name on each, check ID's, named individual has to show up. Limit party size to under 10.

Not just that, but require people to show up to the box office in person with ID in order to swap tickets to another person.

Or simply ban the resale of tickets by passing an anti scalping law prohibiting the resale of tickets for more than their face value including fees. So if a ticket sells on ticketmaster for 200 bucks then you can't charge more than that to resell it, if you even can.